How phonological and orthographic decoding complicates the simple view of reading in Chinese: examining mediation through listening comprehension.

Advocates of the science of reading have invoked the simple view of reading (SVR) to justify an approach that foregrounds decoding in early reading instruction. SVR describes reading comprehension as the product of decoding and listening comprehension. The current study examined the complexity of the SVR, focusing on the phonological and orthographic decoding in third-grade readers of Chinese. One hundred and forty-three students participated in this study. The measures included phonological decoding (pinyin invented spelling), orthographic decoding, listening comprehension and reading comprehension. Drawing upon regression analyses and multivariate path models, the study found that phonological decoding at both segmental and suprasegmental processing significantly predicted Chinese reading comprehension, yet a more significant effect of orthographic decoding surfaced. And the best-fitting model suggested listening comprehension was better characterized as a mediator rather than a covariance with decoding component in the decoding-reading relation when orthographic decoding was incorporated into decoding component to evaluate the validity of the SVR in Chinese. The results imply that orthographic decoding is a legitimate decoding component and that the two decoding constructs alone are insufficient for higher-level reading ability (reading comprehension) since the contribution appears to be mediated through the path route of oral language capacity (indexed by listening comprehension). This enriches the current understanding of the SVR in non-alphabetic languages and indicates that decoding training on both phonological and orthographic dimension should be highlighted in early Chinese reading instruction.

Cross-linguistic influence of phonological awareness and phonological recoding skills in Chinese reading acquisition among early adolescent students.

This study investigated crosslinguistic phonological awareness and phonological recoding skills in Chinese reading acquisition among early Chinese adolescent students. 76 Chinese children participated in this study and finished a series of reading measurements over 1 year (from Grade 5 to Grade 6). In Grade 5, they were assessed by Chinese phonological awareness (syllable, onset, rhyme, phoneme, and tone awareness), English phonological awareness (syllable, onset, and rime, phoneme awareness) as well as English and Chinese phonological recoding skills. In Grade 6, the students completed the measurement of Chinese lexical inferencing ability. Subsequent hierarchical regression analyses showed that Time 1 (Grade 5) Chinese phonological awareness and recoding skills made a joint intra-lingual contribution to later Chinese lexical inferencing ability. Moreover, English phonological recoding skills had a unique inter-lingual contribution to later Chinese lexical inferencing ability after age, nonverbal intelligence, and English phonological awareness were controlled for. Results expanded the self-teaching hypothesis to account for variations within and across languages over time and underscored the uniqueness of inter-lingual phonological recoding in later orthographic and semantic learning.

Concurrent and longitudinal contributions of phonological awareness to early adolescent Chinese reading acquisition.

This study investigated universal and language-specific phonological awareness in reading development among Chinese early adolescent students. Seventy-six children participated in this study and completed a series of reading tasks at two data collection points across Grades 5 and 6. In Grade 5, universal phonological awareness (syllable, onset, rhyme, and phoneme awareness), language-specific phonological awareness (tone awareness) as well as character recognition and production measurements were administered to the participants. Lexical inferencing ability was measured in Grade 6. Character recognition and lexical inference were coded as the outcome variables. Subsequent multiple regression analyses showed that Time 1 (Grade 5) language-universal onset and phoneme awareness predicted character recognition and production at Time 1. More strikingly, the study demonstrated that language-specific tone awareness exerted a longitudinal effect on later lexical inferencing ability after controlling for age and nonverbal intelligence. Results underscored both the universality and language specificity of phonological awareness and provided empirical evidence to substantiate the facilitative role of early language-specific psycholinguistic grain size in later reading performance.

Prosodic Transfer in English Literacy Skills among Chinese Elementary-Age Students: Controlling for Non-Verbal Intelligence.

Building upon the prosodic transfer hypothesis, the current study aims to examine the intermediary effect of English stress on the relation between Chinese lexical tone awareness and English word-level literacy (reading and spelling) as well as the moderating effect of English oral vocabulary proficiency on the cross-linguistic association. Grade 4 Chinese learners of English (N = 224) participated in this study and were assessed for their tone and stress sensitivity, English oral vocabulary, English word reading, and English word spelling. Mediated multivariate analyses with moderation were used to explore: (1) whether the influence of lexical tone perception on L2 word reading and spelling was mediated by English stress as posited in the prosodic transfer hypothesis; (2) whether the effects of tone on English word reading and spelling performance varied as a function of oral vocabulary levels. The findings revealed a direct positive relationship between Chinese tone and English word reading and spelling, and the relationship was mediated by English stress awareness. Furthermore, the direct pathway from tone to English word-level literacy skills were moderated by oral vocabulary and the relationship between tone and English word-level skills became stronger as oral vocabulary levels increased; however, such strength reached a plateau among children without adequate oral vocabulary skills. These findings suggest the necessity to incorporate word spelling as an outcome in the cross-suprasegmental phonological transfer models of early literacy development. Additionally, the current study endorses the complexity of cross-language prosodic transfer. It points to a precise threshold for sufficient L2 oral vocabulary skills to enable tone transfer in English word-level literacy attainment.

The dimensionality of morphological awareness in reading comprehension among Chinese early adolescent readers.

Recent research has included multiple measures of morphological awareness to address the dimensionality of morphological construct in the context of modeling skilled reading. However, a majority of studies have an Anglocentric focus. The current study aims to extend the previous studies to logographic learners by evaluating the dimensionality of morphological awareness in higher-order reading comprehension among Chinese adolescent readers. A total of 686 early adolescent students (339 fifth-grade students and 347 sixth-grade students) participated in the study. They completed a series of morphological awareness measurements (morpheme recognition, morpheme discrimination, and compound structure awareness), vocabulary knowledge, lexical inference and reading comprehension. By testing three alternative path models, the study showed that morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge were best represented as parallel covariates in predicting Chinese reading comprehension. More important, the study highlighted the mediator of lexical inference in associating morphological awareness, vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension among Chinese readers. Empirical findings suggest that morphological awareness and vocabulary knowledge seem to be under a unitary construct in logographic reading acquisition and that word-meaning inference ability connects the path between morphological awareness and reading comprehension. These findings contribute to the complexity in the conceptualization of Chinese morphological awareness and reading instruction by examining the ways in which the morphological construct supports higher-order reading development.

Graphene Family Nanomaterials: Properties and Potential Applications in Dentistry.

Graphene family nanomaterials, with superior mechanical, chemical, and biological properties, have grabbed appreciable attention on the path of researches seeking new materials for future biomedical applications. Although potential applications of graphene had been highly reviewed in other fields of medicine, especially for their antibacterial properties and tissue regenerative capacities, in vivo and in vitro studies related to dentistry are very limited. Therefore, based on current knowledge and latest progress, this article aimed to present the recent achievements and provide a comprehensive literature review on potential applications of graphene that could be translated into clinical reality in dentistry.

[Study on Material Base of Panax ginseng for Treating Brain Ischemia Based on Molecular Docking].

Objective: On the basis of molecular docking,to study the mechanism of Panax ginseng in the treatment of ischemic stroke. Methods: The small molecules of Panax ginseng based on molecular docking technology docked with 20 key targets protein of cerebral ischemia, and multi-component protein target network was established by Cytoscape 3. 1. 1 software. At the same time,the two active molecules of the Panax ginseng of Rb2 and 20( R)-ginsenoside Rg2 were also analyzed by VEGF and Caspase-3,which were the key protein in brain ischemia. Results: There were 31 active molecules of Panax ginseng combined strongly with five or more than five protein targets after molecular docking, and only four active molecules of Panax ginseng combined strongly with ten or more than ten protein targets. The two active molecules of Rb2 and 20( R)-ginsenoside Rg2 in the Panax ginseng had a very strong combination with VEGF and Caspase-3,respectively,and the docking scores were more than 7. 0. Conclusion: Molecular docking technology screening active substances of Panax ginseng plays a practical significance in the treatment of ischemic stroke, which offers the foundation to study the chemical constituents of composite prescription.

[Simulation and Prediction of Material Foundation of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma for Ischemic Stroke Based on Molecular Docking Technology].

OBJECTIVE: To apply molecular docking technology for virtual screening of active molecules of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma, and to explore the effective substances. METHODS: 21 key targets proteins related with cerebral ischemia with 52 compounds of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma based on molecular docking technology were combined to select active small molecules. Meanwhile, multi-component protein target network was established by software Cytoscape 2. 8. 1. RESULTS: It was identified that 23 of those compounds had strong interactions with no less than 10 targets by virtual screening of molecular docking. CONCLUSION: The method of virtual screening based on molecular docking can be used to find the active components of Rhei Radix et Rhizoma in treatment of cerebral ischemia. It provides the reference for research on multi-targets of Chinese medicine compound.